Shed Style Roof

[acrockett6]

Hello,

Because I live in the Appalachian mountains, you are usually hard pressed to find a piece of property that is dead flat, because of this I am anticipating designing and building a timber frame that is centered around a grand overlook at the peak of a mountain. I understand this will be a vague question as I don't have a piece of property yet that I can provide photos of for reference, but just imagine the typical rolling hills of SW Virginia and you'll get the idea. My question pertains to a shed style roof (it may be called something else to more knowledgeable individuals) but what I'm referencing can be found here https://www.dwell.com/home/modern-shed-roof-house-05942ade. I really like the way this design meshes well into a hillside overlook, but I wanted to seek advise or design considerations that I should take into factor before designing or planning this out. Similar to the link, this would most likely be on a walkout basement but would most likely not be as tall at the front ridgeline. Advice? considerations? Have you done this before? Would love to see if you have.

Thanks.

[Will.K]

Where are you land hunting? Are we in competition?  smiley_huh

I've built shed roofs and plan to build another when I find another bit of hillside. I don't think I'd want the face of the building looking into the wind, especially on a peak, with little or no windbreak. 

[acrockett6]

Where are you land hunting? Are we in competition?  smiley_huh

I've built shed roofs and plan to build another when I find another bit of hillside. I don't think I'd want the face of the building looking into the wind, especially on a peak, with little or no windbreak.

Floyd area at the moment! Thanks for the tip! Do you have any pictures of some builds you've done? Would love to see!

[Will.K]

I just looked at a place for sale in Floyd about a month ago. Hoping to get just a little more NW if I can.

Sorry I'm not the picture taking sort. Probably haven't photographed anything except caves for a dozen years or more. I've put a lot of shed roofs on pole buildings, only one on a house, and one on a "tiny house". I'm not an expert and hope to learn something from the input you get here. 

Particularly, what kind of a span is reasonable for timber framed shed roofs using timbers in the 8 to 10 inch range?

[acrockett6]

I just looked at a place for sale in Floyd about a month ago. Hoping to get just a little more NW if I can.

Sorry I'm not the picture taking sort. Probably haven't photographed anything except caves for a dozen years or more. I've put a lot of shed roofs on pole buildings, only one on a house, and one on a "tiny house". I'm not an expert and hope to learn something from the input you get here.

Particularly, what kind of a span is reasonable for timber framed shed roofs using timbers in the 8 to 10 inch range?

Great question, I'm also interested in the answer.

[Don P]

I'd call it a shed roof, it is also called a monoslope.
A little of what I can see of the construction. The "timbers" of the roof are tripled LVL's of considerable depth, they look to be on about 8' centers. The porch ceiling boards run beyond them, something is holding those up there and the roof has some thickness so there is more framing above those beams. There is a midwall down the center of the building. The roof beams are likely in the 40' long neighborhood fully crossing the 3 walls and overhanging them to give that long overhang. Personally I'd do that in glulam, you aren't going to get there with heavy timber and those lvl's are not pretty nor is that porch ceiling if you zoom on it, those are just detail preferences. Then a heavy timber decking that is sized to span for your snow loads. The rest of that is stick frame which is common for that style. The deck itself is a code/engineering nightmare, go to awc.org and look up their deck guide for better details. If that tall wall faces south or west you're gonna cook. Anywhere, there's some unsolicited opinions and starting points.

[acrockett6]

I'd call it a shed roof, it is also called a monoslope.
A little of what I can see of the construction. The "timbers" of the roof are tripled LVL's of considerable depth, they look to be on about 8' centers. The porch ceiling boards run beyond them, something is holding those up there and the roof has some thickness so there is more framing above those beams. There is a midwall down the center of the building. The roof beams are likely in the 40' long neighborhood fully crossing the 3 walls and overhanging them to give that long overhang. Personally I'd do that in glulam, you aren't going to get there with heavy timber and those lvl's are not pretty nor is that porch ceiling if you zoom on it, those are just detail preferences. Then a heavy timber decking that is sized to span for your snow loads. The rest of that is stick frame which is common for that style. The deck itself is a code/engineering nightmare, go to awc.org and look up their deck guide for better details. If that tall wall faces south or west you're gonna cook. Anywhere, there's some unsolicited opinions and starting points.

Super insightful, thanks a bunch!

[logman]

I have one in the works right now.  It's similar to the one on Timber HQ.  I'd post a drawing but I find it a hassle to do on here.  

[logman]

I'm in North Tazewell.

[Don P]

Have you moved or on a job there?

[TroyC]

Hope this story isn't too far off track-

I was in Montana years ago hunting with a friend. He was showing me around his acreage. His great grandfather originally settled there in the early 1900's. The homestead was built in a valley with not much of a view of the surrounding Big Sky Country. Go to the top of the hill half mile away and you have a wonderful unobstructed view of the Yellowstone Mountains about 50 miles away.

Anyway, we were going into town and I looked up on a ridge and saw a beautiful new logframe home, lots of glass. Absolutely spectacular, you could almost imagine the view from there, sitting in front of the fireplace looking towards Yellowstone. I commented on the home and my friend muttered something about how the new out-of state people sure did stupid things. Told me that none of the old timers built houses on tops of the ridges. Told me how the bitter blowing cold was worse on the ridges, how the wind currents there were magnified by the hillsides, how vehicles are blown off the highways that follow ridges, interesting things like that. People from back east (or farther west) don't really think about things like what he told me.

Well, next summer the beautiful log home was gone. Seems the fires out there cannot be put out once the winds pick up and drive the flames up the hillsides. My friend is still there living in the valley.

[logman]

Have you moved or on a job there?

Pretty much moved up here but still have my place in NC.  Met a nice girl up here and we got married in March.  I've been meaning to send you a PM to see if you knew someplace closer than Boone to get S4S white pine timbers.  I have some ordered at C&B but it is taking forever to get them.  

[Don P]

Well congratulations
C&B is only about 5 miles from here. I've gotten them in the past from Turman out on 100 N of Hillsville.

The ridge and gorge effect is just as true in our mountains, wind has to compress and speed up to get over a rise, good for windmills not so much for houses. We have the same problem here, folks come in and want a place on a ridgetop because of the view the realtor showed them on a perfect day. I can hear the freight train in the trees above me pretty often. One house I helped on we froze our tails off building but you could see 3 states from up there. He replaced the roof several times, screen doors several times, chains on the porch swings to dog them down when not in use, just a miserable place to be outside many days of the year. He sold it and moved down into the bottom just below there. Certainly think about uplift on big overhangs.

Frank Lloyd Wright's home was called "Taliesin", translates to "shining brow". He built just over the crest of the hill. This tends to make for a better site and the locals won't despise you for spoiling their view of the ridge. NC passed tighter rules on ridgetop building after the "box on the rocks" was built in the mountains there. From the right places here I can see it about 50 miles away... and the mountaintop pretty much beside it has clocked over 180mph.

[scsmith42]

We milled out some SYP timbers for a similar project a couple of years ago.  The longest beams were S4S to 5-1/2" x 13" x 31', and we had some shorter ones too.  We milled them as 7 x 15's and kiln dried them on a 90 day schedule in a Nyle L200.  Final MC%'s ended up in the 12% - 16% range and he Southern Pine Inspection Bureau came in and graded them.  

Our biggest challenge was in sourcing logs that were straight enough to yield a 34' long, 7x15" beam with no wane.  

Approximately 20% of the beams crooked or warped during the drying process; primarily due to large knots along one edge of the beam.  Fortunately we anticipated this and milled extra to accommodate any loss.  We were also able to use a couple of the warped beams for some 20 footers.

Here they are getting ready to come out of the kiln.  The wood movement is apparent.



 



Here is a load of the mid length beams being loaded and strapped down after S4S and millwork.  If you look closely on the bottom beam you can see where we routed it out for a steel strap to lay flat for attachment to the walls.



 

[acrockett6]

Hope this story isn't too far off track-

I was in Montana years ago hunting with a friend. He was showing me around his acreage. His great grandfather originally settled there in the early 1900's. The homestead was built in a valley with not much of a view of the surrounding Big Sky Country. Go to the top of the hill half mile away and you have a wonderful unobstructed view of the Yellowstone Mountains about 50 miles away.

Anyway, we were going into town and I looked up on a ridge and saw a beautiful new logframe home, lots of glass. Absolutely spectacular, you could almost imagine the view from there, sitting in front of the fireplace looking towards Yellowstone. I commented on the home and my friend muttered something about how the new out-of state people sure did stupid things. Told me that none of the old timers built houses on tops of the ridges. Told me how the bitter blowing cold was worse on the ridges, how the wind currents there were magnified by the hillsides, how vehicles are blown off the highways that follow ridges, interesting things like that. People from back east (or farther west) don't really think about things like what he told me.

Well, next summer the beautiful log home was gone. Seems the fires out there cannot be put out once the winds pick up and drive the flames up the hillsides. My friend is still there living in the valley.

Hey thanks for the comment and insight. Fortunately, that is something I shouldn't have to worry about in SW VA. I will definitely keep that in my mind though and makes great sense.

[Don P]

If you look closely on the bottom beam you can see where we routed it out for a steel strap to lay flat for attachment to the walls.

TMI terminology, that is called a "dap"

[scsmith42]

Well, in iDen terminology, a DAP is a Dispatch Application Processor!